Friday, May 4, 2012

Hallo!

Note: I have started writing a diary about my present experiences with skin-cancer surgery. I know these accounts will not be suitable for Rinkly Rimes, but I also know shared-experience blogs can be very helpful. The diary can be found at http://breabry.blogspot.com.au/.
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Trevor's great-granddaughter 

PINK SATURDAY

HALLO!

Hallo! I'm new round here!
What a smiling face you've got!
I was looking for a place to stay
And I'm glad I chose this spot!
This world seems quite delightful,
Smiling faces everywhere.
Everyone seems to love me
They really seem to care.
I'm kept so warm and cosy;
I'm fed when I need food.
And if I make rude noises
No-one calls them rude!
I sleep when I feel sleepy;
I wake just when I please.
I've no responsibilities;
I just do as I please!
To think of all the places
I could have been coming to!
And I chose the best one!
Here, at home, with you!
*
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                                                                                          Brenda Bryant


THE TRIGGER

She was my Auntie Mabs
And she died young.
If she were capable of thought
She would consider herself forgotten.
Not so.
For here, in Australia,
Decades after her death,
Her niece,
Now old herself,
Remembers her.
Often.
Tall, rangy, Celtic-looking,
Funny, kind and ascerbic.
I think of her every time I see a certain flower.
Just because, back in the mists of time,
Casually,
She said
'I wish I could live somewhere where bougainvillia grows'.
And now I do.
*

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Semi Precious


SIGNS SIGNS

SEMI-PRECIOUS

Today this country's being mined
All over, willy-nilly.
'Fracking' is the catch-cry!
Losing farm-land seems quite silly.
The lovely Hunter Valley,
With its gently rolling hills
Is fast becoming a quarry
To cure financial ills.
The scars that mining leaves behind
Are lurid, huge and vast,
Yet we know 'the mining bonanza',
Is certain not to last.
What will we be left with then?
 Just great holes in the ground.
Then we'll view the devastation
As obviously unsound.
*
Meanwhile, Australia has opals,
Mined since the earliest days,
Gems used for decoration,
But not part of the mining craze.
Not gas, nor any 'useful' ore, 
But more precious, I would say,
Reminding us of gentler times
In a semi-precious way.
*
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HOSPITALITY

It was late, and a hiker in Ireland was looking for a bed,
Preferably in a country cottage with a thatched roof overhead.
He chanced upon such a cottage, such a very welcome sight,
And he knocked on the door and requested some lodging for the night.
Mine host was a genial gentleman who was only too pleased to say
'Begorrah! You're very welcome! This is my lucky day'.
A pot of soup was bubbling over a generous fire
And the hiker felt a bowl of soup was just what he might require.
He was slightly put-off by the great big pig which sat in the corner and eyed him;
He wasn't used to eating food with a great big pig beside him!
'Don't be concerned about Porky!' the Irishman declared.
'He's as gentle as a lamb! No need to be scared.'
The hiker was given his bowl of soup sitting in an easy chair;
The room was warm and comfortable. He was glad that he was there.
His only problem was the pig, which seemed affectionate!
Porky kept rubbing against his leg all the while he ate!
Porky grunted, Porky wheezed, Porky pushed and shoved,
As though the luckless hiker were somebody that he loved!
He tried to climb in the hiker's lap; his trotters were on his knee.
Said the hiker 'This old pig of yours has taken a fancy to me!'
Said the Irishman 'It isn't that! Dear me! Oh bless my soul!
It isn't that he's friendly....you're eating out of his bowl!'
*

Shadow Show


POETIC BLOOMINGS
asks us to write a pantoum

abab bcbc cdcd dada 

SHADOW SHOW
(A Pantoum)

I am blotting out the sun
Image-making, clever.
Making shadows just for fun.
What an odd endeavour!

Image-making. Clever.
Loops and changing whirls.
What an odd endeavour!
See the lines and curls!

Loops and changing whirls;
Now the sky is greying.
See the lines and curls
Fading, merging, straying.

Now the sky is greying.
I am blotting-out the sun.
Fading, merging, straying,
Making shadows just for fun.
*
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COMPATIBILITY CHECK

TAURUS with TAURUS

There are not too many fireworks when two Bulls are cast together!
In fact, I’m afraid it could be that you're in for heavy weather!
If you stay together for a while you'll find life very flat,
And, in later years, you may end up bovine and rather fat!
Your sex lives are exciting, as, at first, you're very keen,
But, as years go by, you think about the loves that might have been.
Sorry to sound depressing but you're similar to a fault,
You both would be much happier with a mate of a different sort.
You'll understand each other, because you'll think the same,
But both can be pedestrian, so thoughts will be, well, tame!
Both of you are stubborn and likely to bear a grudge
And arguments go on and on when neither side will budge.
You both are very loyal and hardworking, yes, indeed,
But something that's a contrast is what you really need.
You're at their best when sharing in a hobby or a chore,
But even this can soon become a plodding sort of bore!
Interests outside the home may see this union thrive,
Spread your wings, Taureans!
Be glad that you're alive!
*

Charity Police


THREE WORD WEDNESDAY
'generous, just, penalise'

CHARITY POLICE

I suggest the creation of Charity Police,
Checking who has been generous and kind.
Supporters of charities would get off scot-free
While the mean would be heavily fined.
We could penalise those who didn't donate,
Who didn't make big-hearted offers,
And all money raised could be just handed-on
Increasing the charities' coffers.
Think of the jobs that would, thus, be created,
Bureaucracy rampant indeed!
But think of the glow in the hearts of us all!
A country without those in need!
*
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WILD WEST
(An Acrostic)

Wagons rolling, single-filed.
In the West it's very wild.
Leading over the endless plain.
Dust! No sign of soothing rain!
*
Wheels are turning; men are steady.
Every gun is at the ready.
Shots are fired! The dead fall down!
The Sherrif's men have come to town.
*

Diffusion

                                    Brenda Bryant

SKYWATCH

DIFFUSION

When light is filtered through the clouds
It seems to be more bright,
As though the facets up above
Are multiplying light.
Instead of that round orb above
That blazes in isolation,
A billion little suns are born
Each a dazzling creation.
Light bounces off the water
In countless shining drops,
And glimmers far across the lake
Where it shines upon roof-tops.
It becomes a gauzy curtain
That softens as it gleams,
And everything is shrouded
In a memory of dreams.
*
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 MAD MAP!

We look at an Atlas and know what we see.
The shapes of the countries are plain as can be.
There's Europe, America, then Hindustan!
All part of a terribly obvious plan.
So Italy's shaped like a boot? Well, why not?
For that was the shape that old Italy got
In the days when the boiling mud hardened to rock!
The shapes never give us the tiniest shock.
We're so used to the map and the way it's designed!
We see it as normal; so clearly outlined.
There's an island called Britain up there in the sea
And China is just where that country should be.
But just take a look at the Atlas above,
And see the phenomenon I'm speaking of.
If the oceans had lowered in some other way
Our countries would all look so different today.
But one fact is quite certain! There's just no escaping
The squabbling and fighting and killing and  raping
Would all have gone-on; all the feuding and fuss!
For one thing would still be the same and that's 'us'!
*

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Spring Recollection


SENSATIONAL HAIKU WEDNESDAY

SPRING RECOLLECTION
(Written from an Autumnal Australia)

More than a season
An uprising of the heart
The greening of souls
*
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SO LITTLE DONE!

No time, no time the housewife cries
As all around her chaos lies.
'Beds to make and food to cook;
Where did you put your library book?
Lunches to pack, and hair to brush,
Homework to check! All I do is rush!'

No time, no time Grandfather sighs
'The days zoom past before one dies.
So many flowers and pretty faces,
Scenery, enchanting places,
So many things to see and do
I wish  had as much time as you.'
*

Silk Road


WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE

SILK ROAD

'Silk Road'.
The phrase echoed in my mind
From my earliest days.
I never questioned it.
There was a Silken Road
That wound through Asia.
I pictured it as made of 
The finest purple silk.
I saw it laid out beneath my feet,
Leading to some place of splendour.
Maybe it led to Shangri La,
A place where everyone was
Always young.
My images were those of 
Fairy Tale,
And yet I knew this Silken Road
Existed! 
Magic Carpets,
Genies in Bottles,
Wishes Coming True,
These were all fantasy.
I was too sophisticated for them.
But a Silken Road!
That was real.
*
Of course, I am wiser now.
It was a Route,
A Silk Route.
Not a Road at all.
It was a series of trade connections.
And one of the items traded
Was silk.
It was important,
It was vast,
It made civilisations.
But it was not magical.
*
Hey Ho!
We live and learn.
I have learned to live
Without magic.
Almost.
*

The Silk Road
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OFF COURSE

My love lived in a block of flats
On the other side of town
And sometimes being away from her
Really got me down.
One day while I was languishing,
Downhearted, and alone,
I saw a way of greeting her
By a method all my own.
I made a paper aeroplane
From a love-note I had written,
(As you can tell I was deep in love.....
Absolutely smitten!)
With well-honed origami skills
I folded and I fashioned,
A paper aeroplane which spoke
Of a man deeply impassioned.
I cast my plane upon the winds;
It flew just like a bird.
I knew that it would reach my love
And carry each loving word.
It circled in the breezy blue,
It fluttered in the sky
Then, like a stupid boomerang,
Came back and hit me in the eye!
*
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